Saint of the White Lotus
by Rolden
Summary: Byakuren Hijri has just been revived. But not into the world she wanted. Instead of a wonderland she and her followers are trapped in a world where violence is casual and chaos is everywhere. And it is now her duty to change it for the better. They say "Give the world the best you have and it'll kick you in the teeth" Well... she'll give the world the best she has anyway.
1. A Saint's Arrival

**This is going to be based on an AU of Unidentified Fantastic Object. It's essentially the same plot with variations so the Buddhist Youkai is still trying to unseal Byakuren, Nue is still stalking them and Kogasa is still looking for someone to scare.**

**Disclaimer: Touhou Project belongs to Team Shanghai Alice (Or just ZUN) and One Piece belongs to Oda Eiichiro and the quote I used in the summary is from 'The Origin of Paradoxical Commandments' by Kent Keith.**

* * *

Once upon a time there was a Buddhist nun that worked alongside her brother. They lived a happy life tending to their temple until the gentle and loving brother died.

As the sister mourned she began to fear death; the same death that claimed her dearest sibling.

So she started to try to find the secret of eternal youth, eventually drifting away from the Buddhist arts to a more demonic magic. With this black magic she found her answer.

But even with this her worries did not end. During her search she became a Youkai. And with humanity losing their belief in magic and putting their faith in science, the powers that maintained her life was fading.

Thus she needed to ensure the prosperity and longevity of Youkai. To humans; she posed as a great Youkai exterminator. And yet in truth; she honoured and protected the Youkai for her own selfish benefit.

As the years passed she witnessed the struggles of Youkai, as they daily fought to live in an increasingly hostile world. Eventually her heart yielded and she began to earnestly aid the Youkai.

In order to gain the trust of the Youkai she constructed a temple dedicated to the god: Bishamonten. It was a Youkai that she appointed to be the gods's disciple and thus head the temple. By doing so she earned the trust of the nearby Youkai and loyalty of Shou Toramaru and his 'aide' Nazrin.

One day she was charged to exterminate a Youkai that was sinking ships. Rather than exterminate the ghost phantom she confronted her as a normal human and allowed the Youkai to capsize her ship. Instead of perished, the nun rose up from the murky depths atop a shining ship which she then granted to Minamitsu Murasa for the ghost to escape binds that kept her in the cursed oceans and earned her gratitude.

On another she encountered a girl with a cloud spirit. The pair had often been seen near human villages and was always driven off in fear. Providing a shelter and hospitality they never had, the nun let them stay at her temple. For giving them a home; she had earned the loyalty and trust of Ichirin Kumoi and her Nyuudou protector: Unzan.

Eventually her secrets were revealed. Instead of helping humans to kill Youkai she had been helping them live. Despite all the aid and help she freely provided to humans; the nun was labelled a "Demon in Human form" and sealed into the depths of Makai.

The Youkai she had saved tried to rescue her. But their strength could not prevail over the strength of all the humans present and they too were sealed deep underground.

A millennium passed by before the Youkai that she had aided escaped their seals by luck of a geyser blowing. Without hesitation they agreed to rescue their saviour with the exception of one. Nue Houjuu only wanted to not be left alone after being sealed for one thousand years.

The Youkai set sail on board the ship that was given to Murasa. Their destination: Makai.

They gathered the necessary pieces to unseal her. Through the course of it; Shou had lost the Pagoda of Bishamonten; though luckily Nazrin found it in the hands of an umbrella Youkai. After bringing Kogasa Totara along with the Pagoda back on board they finally started the final stage of their plan and entered Makai.

And they were successful. They managed to unseal the nun without a problem. That was when their saviour shouted for them to escape.

You see, the original sealers were not so arrogant to believe that a single seal would work. They were well aware of the nun's reputation among the Youkai and there was a number of them which would have the power to force open the seal.

And so they had a contingent; a second hidden seal that would activate when the first was broken. For they had decided they were too lenient to the nun. Instead of being sealed in hell she deserved to be cast off from the plane altogether.

And any that would try to set her free would deserve to share her fate. It was a win-win scenario; there was no way for them to lose out. Either the demon would remain trapped for eternity or she would be gone from the world. Either outcome would benefit humanity.

* * *

He didn't know what went wrong. He had chased down the ones who had attacked the World Noble to an isolated barren rock island. Perhaps they knew he was going to catch up or they just wanted to confront him there. It did not matter because the Celestial Dragons wanted bloody vengeance for the attack and despite his own personal distaste with the so called _Saints_, he was a Marine. And he knew his duty.

At first the fight was progressing heavily in his favour. His opponents were fleeing and not even tried to hit back, content with just seemingly escaping him. It was until he actually managed hit one of them that their leader struck back.

The blows were powerful; powerful enough to match even Garp. It was only made worse by the extreme speed she moved at. Kenbunshoku Haki let him predict and see attacks before they actually happened. It was useless if you couldn't dodge it regardless.

Still he wasn't an Admiral for nothing and he fought her to a standstill. Shockwaves emitted every time they traded blows. Despite his overwhelming size and the hardness of his transformed body, she was matching him with every step. For an Admiral to be stopped by someone that no one knew about… perhaps he was getting too old for this crap.

Then she started using her powers. Jumping into the air she literally flew away from him. With his size, there was no way that he could keep up with her speed, so she easily managed to put enough distance between them to start her own attack.

It was beautiful yet so deadly. It was that scroll of hers; the one that automatically drew runes into the air behind her. From it she created something in the air; from his angle he could only make out four bright and beautiful flowers that were connected to something behind her, which screamed out danger to him.

His instincts were not wrong. Rather than engaging him in melee; she had instead chosen to bombard him with light. It reminded him of Vice Admiral's Borsalino's "Yasakani no Magatama", except instead of a barrage of weak bright yellow bolts of light, she used a massive variety of light.

There were long, thin sharp lasers that pierced him, balls the size of cannon balls and shared the same effect, thousands of bullet sized blue bolts, and sheets of colours insisted on attaching to his body before exploding. There were all of these and they were in the thousands, each and every single one locked onto him as their target.

He tried to endure, he did. Every step was filled with pain as he trudged to get close enough to hit her. And amidst all of that he did, he was only meters away from her, his eyes meeting hers on level ground as he drew a fist back. Then she simply flew further back as his fist met only empty air.

He was defeated he knew. His transformed size was a humongous target and one had to be an idiot to miss. He could revert back to normal but he doubted he would fare any better, without the endurance his Hito Hito no Mi Devil Fruit he would have fallen long ago. Dodging all this light would be impossible anyway.

He marched on regardless, his arms protectively in front of him to shield his body for all it's worth. With his current speed he would never catch up and he couldn't escape now. The fight could only end in one way.

"Why aren't I dead yet?" the wounded Admiral choked out. Beside him; the woman sat beside him; a glowing fingertip healing the bruises on her body. Her gradient hair that shifted from purple to brown was a stark contrast with the solid black afro of her downed opponent.

All around them was ruin and destruction. The entirety of the island had been torn apart during their clash. Ruptured earth and fissures scarred the barren landscape of the small island. It was good that the island was essentially just a humongous rock otherwise hardly anything else could have survived.

Off in the distance; a large platoon of Marines rushed to save their downed leader. They ran and skipped over gaps as they desperately tried to beat the flying palanquin ship, coming from the opposite direction, to where the pair was currently situated.

"Do you want to die?" the young lady beside him responded as she finished the last of her healing. Fixing her ruined black and white dress; she stood back to full height and looked down at the man who identified himself as Admiral Sengoku.

"You've already beaten me and killing an Admiral would make you famous overnight. Just… finish it already." Sengoku spat out. He didn't know what this pirate's game was but it was tiresome. He was a dead man already; there was no pirate that would miss out on a chance like this. He closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable.

The faint sound of drumming footsteps reminded him of one last thing. "You can kill me but let my men go." If he couldn't beat her; then it was unlikely that any other Marine present could. With the woman's own crew drawing closer; it would be a slaughter for his Marines. He wanted them to at least live and warn the world of this new threat.

"Hmm… I'd rather not." He heard in reply. His tired fist clenched in anger. So she was the merciless type of pirate; the type to just kill everyone and be done with it. With her strength; she could easily just ignore his men as targets but she had instead chosen to just slaughter them all… and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

He jolted in surprise as a smooth hand was placed onto his chest. Opening his eyes he found the woman now using the same healing power as before to close his wounds. There was a grim expression on her face as his ribs snapped back together; making a loud chilling noise that made the hardened Admiral wince. Yet he felt no pain.

"What are you doing to me?!" he demanded as he struggled to lift his hand to swat hers away. Why was she healing him? Or was she doing something else entirely? No. He was sure of it; it was the same power she used to heal herself, his own rejuvenating body could attest to that.

"I'm healing you." She replied simply; her eyes not straying as she focussed on healing. Now she moved her fingers to his right arm where the same process was repeated. Flesh and bone mended with great efficiency as her healing touch passed over.

"Why?!" he angrily demanded again. It was shameful for him to have an enemy take pity on him. Or perhaps not… she did already state her intention to kill him and his men. Perhaps this was some ploy for her to languish in his torment; keeping him alive just long enough to witness her murdering his men.

"All life is precious. You shouldn't be so quick in giving up yours." Was the only reply he received. The woman finished the last of her healings; getting up out of her crouch she took in her handiwork. Sengoku shared this look as he tilted his head to find his entire body clear of the burns, bruises and cuts from their battle.

"Life is precious? Ha! Then tell me why you murdered the whole crew of the World Nobles's ship." He accused. The cause of his mission was this. Only a yesterday; a holidaying World Noble was intercepted and without warning they were attacked by a flying ship. Only the World Noble and his immediate servants survived because the guards sacrificed their lives to distract the attacker.

"World Noble? Do you mean the obese man with the bubble over his head?" she innocently queried. "Well he was trying to kill an innocent man for a petty reason and proceeded to attack us when I stopped him. We defended ourselves accordingly. And we never killed anyone there. I made sure of that." She insisted without waiting for a response to her first question.

She didn't kill them? He had seen the bodies himself. Despite himself he found that he was starting to believe her. He had seen her fighting style. It was mostly close combat with thousands of bolts of energy in support. The guards had all been killed with bullets. But then he hadn't seen what her crew could do so he couldn't pass judgement yet… but he was also aware of the cruelties World Nobles was capable of. It was possible that they got angry at their failure and…

"Don't move! Step away from the Admiral!" his marines appeared to have finally reached him. Panting heavily from their exhausting full on sprint; they nevertheless trained guns and readied swords against the woman. Sweat dropped from their faces as they nervously faced this obviously powerful foe.

"Stand down!" Sengoku shouted out. The Marines hesitated but reluctantly lowered their weapons. He grunted with effort as he propped himself up to sit. Tch. He was going to have to beat some more sense into his men. How did they expect her to not move and step away from him at the same time?

"You aren't going to kill us?" he questioned one last time. His arms glowed golden slightly but quickly faded as his strength faded. Even if his body was healed; he was still heavily fatigued.

This did not go unnoticed by the woman who raised an eye. Luckily that was all she did and didn't make any hostile response. "I never intended to."

"But you just said you'd rather not leave us alive!" He shouted. She seemed surprised by that before recognition dawned on her face. Her face then became slightly flustered for no reason.

"Huh? Oh I meant I rather not kill you." She clarified. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." She gave a slight apologetic bow in recompense.

Before he could respond a large shadow overlapped them. Glancing up he found himself staring at the underbelly of the flying ship from before. Various forms could be seen somehow flying down towards them.

"I suppose I'll have to leave now." The woman noted. Her feet lifted off the ground as she began to ascend back to her ship. Conversely the rest of the crew of the flying ship stopped their descent as they awaited their leader.

"Wait! Who are you?" The World Government needed to know. Someone with the strength to beat an Admiral mustn't remain incognito. He had to warn the world of the threat she could pose.

"Hmm… ah. I apologise for not introducing myself despite you already having done so. I'm Byakuren Hijiri, a humble Buddhist." She answered. Her face then became full with thought as she observed Sengoku.

"You know your transformation actually reminds me a bit of Buddha's golden statue." She mused as she ascended towards the ship and left him alone with his men.

* * *

"Hijiri! Are you okay?" Minamitsu Murasa asked in worry as soon as Byakuren had got back on board the palanquin ship. The black haired ship phantom was dressed in her usual sailor shirt and skirt and wasted no time in ushering her into a room. She shook Hijiri in worry as the Buddhist nun smiled through it and tried to reassure her friend.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me Murasa." Byakuren reassured.

The captain of the palanquin ship brushed off her reassurances. Even if the nun had no outward injuries she could easily feel that Hijiri was seriously hurt. Her healing may have closed her wounds but they were still tender and easy to reopen. Stupid Hijiri. Even when it's obvious that she's not okay she'll still try to pass herself off as fine so as to not worry them.

"Excuse me. I've got the bandages." Ichirin Kumoi opened the paper door and entered the room with a set of clean clothes in her hands. The girl had light purple wavy hair and eyes with the same colour that were also filled with the same worry of Murasa.

As benefiting a Nyuudou user; the purple cloud spirit that was Unzan floated gently near her shoulder. Even from the face that formed with the clouds; traces of worry could be detected.

"Ah! That's fine, I already healed my wounds. Thank you for the effort." Byakuren told her. It was then she noticed the 'Youkai' behind her.

Shifting nervously behind Ichirin and Unzan was the fish 'Youkai' they had liberated from the _Saint's _ship. He had a broad chested and had quite a lot long curly hair that surrounded his dorsal fin. His head was downcast and an air of guilt hung around him.

"I'm sorry. If you hadn't helped us then you wouldn't have had to fight an Admiral." He profusely said, his head bowed down to the person that had liberated him from a life of slavery. Tears were in his eyes as the guilt and shame swelled in his heart.

Byakuren moved quickly to reassure the fish man. "It's hardly your fault. I consciously made the decision to aid you and I will reap the consequences." She adamantly maintained. Slavery was an evil she couldn't condone and she couldn't just leave them to suffer under such abuse.

"But you're enemies of the World Government now?! Don't you know what that means?!" he demanded. Couldn't they understand? By freeing him from a Celestial Dragon they had provoked the World Government and by defeating an Admiral; they just placed themselves near the top list of people the World Government, and by extension the Marines, wanted dead.

Having one of their strongest military assets defeated just after one of their precious _descendants of Kings_ being shamed by an unknown was something they couldn't ignore. Their image of undisputed strength would be tarnished and he knew from history that that was something the Gorosei constantly sought to maintain.

"You just hurt their pride and they can't let you get away with that without tarnishing their reputation. Hell! They might send two Admirals next time!" he shouted in frustration.

"Then so be it. I will not second guess my decisions when they are the morally correct one." She stubbornly said. Beside her Murasa gave a nod of support while Ichirin edged closer to her master. "And there is nothing I can do anyhow. What I've done cannot be taken back."

"Now, where is this Fishman Island? We'll take you there before going our own way." The monk said as they planned for the out their course.

* * *

"Bwahahaha!" the thick laughter echoed in the small office of the Fleet Admiral.

"Shut up Garp! You've been laughing for the whole last hour. This is no laughing matter." shouted an enraged Sengoku. Undaunted the Hero of the Marines continued his laugh as Fleet Admiral Kong shuffled some papers behind his desk.

"Don't bother Sengoku. He'll keep this up for a few days at least." Kong dismissively said. The muscular man didn't even lift his eyes from his work as he said this. Sengoku fumed at this but remained quiet.

"Now back on Byakuren Hijiri and the Buddhists." Kong took on a more serious tone as he mentioned the subject of the meeting; Garp even miraculously softened his laugh as he turned an ear to listen.

"We have no information on any of these individuals you spotted. Essentially we are completely in the dark." The Fleet Admiral directly stated.

"No identifications, no records of them, no past bounties. There isn't even any record of their flying ship." He said in disgust. "I find it difficult to believe that a complete unknown defeated you, Sengoku. If not for all your wounds, I would have thought you spent too much time with Garp in a bar."

The Admiral in name brushed his superior's assumption aside. "And what is her bounty going to be then?"

He had expected a bounty of around a few hundred bellis. Someone with much power and not being afraid to use it against World Nobles was going to be hugely problematic. Thus he was surprised that she had received a bounty of a measly two hundred and seventy million bellis.

"Oi oi, even I can tell that that's a bit low. Shouldn't it be higher? She did beat the crap out of Sengoku." questioned Garp, voicing what was on Sengoku's own mind, though the last part could have been phrased better.

Kong didn't flinch as he gave his answer. "The Gorosei has decided to cover up your loss Sengoku. It was on an isolated island with only them and your Marines to witness it."

"And what's stopping them from spreading the news?" Sengoku asked in exasperation. The World Government was too paranoid at times. Even if they covered it up, thanks to Garp the news was probably all over Marineford already.

"The Gorosei have come up with another _brilliant_ idea that will solve both this and other issues. I'm sure both of you are aware of Kaido." The other two occupants of the room nodded solemnly, Garp's usual attitude dissipating at the mention of the infamous pirate.

"Just Whitebeard alone would be enough to challenge us. If by some chance Kaido and Whitebeard ally against us…" he trailed off as he let the implications sink in. The might of the two combined could quite possibly be enough to defeat the Marines and topple the World Government. A world ruled by those two would be anarchy and something no one wanted to see.

"And with this newcomer: Charlotte Linlin also on the rise, we find ourselves surrounded by overwhelming foes. To overcome this, the Gorosei has decided to essentially recruit pirates as privateers." Kong finished to an angry Sengoku and a frowning Garp.

"This is madness!" shouted an enraged Sengoku. "What has possessed them to do something as crazy as this?"

"I have to say this is stupid as well. There's no way this would work." agreed Garp, showing some unusual maturity for the discussion.

Kong gave out a sigh at their protests. "They're already set on this and there's nothing we can do to change their mind. I'm just telling you ahead of time."

Cogs turned in Sengoku's brain as he calmed down; World Government willing to recruit privateers from pirates. They were going to somehow get Byakuren Hijiri to keep her silence. They needed strong pirates to match the growing strength of other pirates.

"They want her as one of them." He concluded out loud. Kong didn't seem surprised by his conclusion; rather he had been expecting it. In comparison Garp was lost on what he meant.

"Someone with the strength of an Admiral and according to your report; isn't outright hostile and even spared your life. Her only crimes thus far have been murdering the crew of a World Noble and stealing the slaves. Though considering that the World Noble himself seems to have survived and the crew was all shot by a gun, something that she never used against you, I doubt the validity of her crimes." Kong explained.

"This all hinges on her accepting. As you said, we know nothing about her aside from my personal interaction. What if she refused?" Sengoku inquired. This was the arrogance of the World Government in play again. They make too many baseless assumptions that would have dire consequences, even if they prove right most of the time.

"We'll know soon enough. They already sent her a letter about it." said Kong.

"Ah is that so…" Sengoku appeared calm for a moment. A calm period passed before the storm.

"What!?" he shouted out in surprise only a moment later. His face now red from all the shouting he had been doing recently.

"The bosses are being unusually bold with this. What happened to their subtlety?" asked Garp as he commented on the behaviour of the World Government. His question went ignored as Sengoku began demanding the details from Kong.

The Vice Admiral cracked a small smile. Any bigger and Sengoku would likely notice. He may as well observe and remember this. It was rare for the proud Admiral to let loose his emotions like this. His defeat affected him far more than he realised. Such moments always made good blackmail for when he needed someone to do his paperwork.

* * *

"Are you certain this is it?" Byakuren asked of Fisher Tiger. The salmon-pink Fishman nodded as he eyed the Sabody Archipelagos in the distance.

"Yes. We can continue the rest of the way from here." assured the Fishman. Tying a bag of rations and water around him, he prepared to join his fellows already in the water.

"You know we could have taken you directly there." Murasa stated and offered at the same time. The 'dead' sailor was seated on the railing of the ship, uncaring of the perilous drop below. Seeing as though everyone here somehow could fly; her lack of fear was not unjustified.

"There's a huge Marine base in GR-66. I don't want to bring you guys into anymore more trouble for my sake." he reassured them.

A fishman would be inconspucious on the islands but considering the proximity to Fishman Island, not an uncommon sight. He just needed to hide his slave brand and no one would suspect a thing. A flying ship with people not shy of showing their powers was surely going to attract a lot more attention.

He walked up to the railing and prepared to hop over before he stopped with his hands on the rails. Murasa and Byakuren raised eyebrows at his sudden stop and was going to ask what was wrong before the former slave swiftly turned and gave a deep, formal bow.

"Thank you for everything!" he gave his most sincere thanks before quickly hopping off the railings; a few seconds later and the heard the splash of the large fishman impacting the water.

"So is the fish Youkai gone now?" a voice said from beside them. What was only a rope then transformed into a small girl with short black hair and a dress of the same colour. Three red metallic wings jaggedly shifted on the right side of her back while the three blue tails on her left flowed with the wind.

She leaned on her trident as she looked over the edge to watch the fishmen swim towards the Sabody Archipelago. "I don't get why you would help him. No one's going to award you for this. Heck, he said the World Government was going to punish us."

"I don't need material rewards for doing good. The feeling from helping others is enough." answered Byakuren without hesitation.

Nue snorted in derision. "That's generic as hell." She noted but didn't comment any further as she floated away, most likely to find Kogasa and mess with the umbrella Youkai.

"Hmmm… Murasa could you make sure Nue doesn't persuade Kogasa to do something silly again." Byakuren requested of the captain of the ship; a trace of apprehension in her voice.

Murasa shivered as she remembered the latest experiment by Kogasa. The Umbrella was only with them by chance and Hijiri, feeling guilty about dragging her along, allowed her to continue her 'scares' as long as they weren't harmful.

Unfortunately her 'scares' aren't the least scary for the Youkai on board which now lead the others to pretend to be horrified so her feelings wouldn't be hurt. With the eggplant umbrella she carried around, she didn't really have the ability to hide effectively either. And then Nue happened.

Needless to say; they no longer had to pretend to be surprised. With Nue polluting her head; her 'scares' had switched to 'surprises' and they were truly surprising. Just yesterday; she suddenly walked up to Shou and used the tongue of her umbrella to lick the tiger Youkai. The next day it was a drunk kiss to Unzan, who despite not actually feeling it was plenty surprised.

Murasa wasn't looking forward to today's surprise. Nodding, she stalked off to find Nue and keep her away from Kogasa.

Byakuren mused to herself as she was left alone on this side of the deck. Ichirin and Unzan was patrolling somewhere and Nazrin was probably sleeping somewhere while her mice acted as look outs. Shou had volunteered to cook and she had just sent Murasa after Nue and Kogasa.

The Youkai Magician wondered about what she was going to do in this mess of things. Only a day after being resealed, or released, they were somehow now considered criminals according to Fisher Tiger.

It was unfair how things played out. It was true she attacked first but that was only in defence of Fisher who was about to be executed for speaking out against the _Saint_. She hadn't hit that hard but the man crumbled instantly with a single punch to the chest. One thing led to another and she was forced into a duel with a man who resembled a giant gold Buddha. Now she was probably a criminal wanted for execution; not exactly how she wanted to play things out.

The flapping of wings brought her attention to the sky. A small bat with a wide cheeky smile was gliding towards her ship. In its grasps was a pure white envelope.

Her eyes widened in surprise as it dropped the letter directly in front of her. Flipping it over she found the letter addressed to "Byakuren Hijiri, Captain of the Buddhist Pirates"

'Buddhist Pirates'? She didn't know whether to be laughing at the ridiculous name or feel ashamed for associating Buddhism with piracy. She didn't do either as she realized that if this was delivered to her then someone knew where they were.

Gently opening the slip she found a long letter. Her surprise grew as she read the contents of the letter. Finishing it she took to leaning against a wall for support.

As she thought over the letter a plan began to form in her mind. Whereas before she had no idea of which direction she should take in this new world, she finally had a semblance of an idea.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. **


	2. Slaver's Falling

**Byakuren Hijiri's ephitet is essentially going to be a translation of her name. ZUN did all the hard work with making her name symbolical. It can be translated into "White Lotus Saint", the title of the fic, "Pure and Saintly" and other rearrangements of "Pure" and "Saint"**

**Disclaimer: Touhou Project belongs to Team Shanghai Alice (Or just ZUN) and One Piece belongs to Oda Eiichiro and the quote I used in the summary is from 'The Origin of Paradoxical Commandments' by Kent Keith.**

* * *

Byakuren Hijiri stepped out of the room with a feeling of great unease. Beside her walked the Fleet Admiral, who supposedly was there for _protection_. In reality everyone knew he was intended to stop her if she went on a rampage.

Behind the two were the Gorosei, still seated on their ornate chairs. And they were the cause of her unease. Her discomfort did not fade away until the decorated doors fully closed behind them and shut away from her sight.

Throughout the discussion of her being the first of their 'Shichibukai', or Royal Seven Warlords of the Sea, they felt… off to her. For someone that had mingled with some of the oddest of Youkai, encountered Gods and faced magically skilled humans; for five age old men to make her uneasy was troubling.

Nevertheless they were at least truthful about their proposal. Truth be told, from how Fisher Tiger had described them, she had expected this to be a cunning trap and had therefore chosen to leave everyone else on the ship despite their protests.

Her surprising bounty of 270,000,000 had been frozen and her crimes pardoned. In return she had become an ally of the World Government as one of their privateers, which suited her just fine. And her group was no longer the "Buddhist Pirates"; it was now correctly just "Buddhists"

The requirements of her title didn't seem excessive. Meeting with the Marines on a regular basis was simple enough. She doubted that they would go plundering so she could ignore the tribute rule and assisting Marines was an expected term of an alliance.

"Excuse me, Fleet Admiral Kong?" she said as they approached the same pond she passed on the way in. The ghostly mist that covered the castle from the front was nowhere in sight from within.

"Hmm?" the larger man acknowledged. He didn't deign to even turn his head to answer her inquiry, to him.

However she wasn't bothered by this. She had gotten used to it long ago, a consequence of her past life. "Is slavery illegal?"

This time Kong did falter slightly, but recovered admirably. This time he did glance in her direction before pressing on ahead. "It was prohibited just less than two hundred years ago." He answered stiffly.

"Yet there appears to be plenty of them here. Shouldn't you be trying to free them?" She noted with false interest, keeping up the façade of a casual conversation. Up ahead was a group of _Saints_ 'playing' with their female _public employees_. Kong took a sudden turn to avoid them, hurrying into a separate corridor.

The Fleet Admiral was obvious uncomfortable with the subject as he hurried his steps. "An attack on the World Nobles will be an attack on the World Government and by extension the Marines. Are you willing to try something so soon after allying with the Gorosei?" he asked, his voice growing dark.

"Not at all." She nonchalantly waved her hands in negative at his words. "I just wonder where they are getting all these slaves."

Kong grunted in disgust as he regarded the sight from before. And why was she so interested in them? Voicing his question aloud, he was surprised by her answer.

"As a Shichibukai it's my duty to aid Marines in stopping criminals isn't it? Who can fault me if I was to stop slavers? After all they are breaking the law."

Kong fully stopped in his tracks as he took this in. He turned to the woman who now had lost all her previous humour.

"This is a dangerous game you're playing at." He truthfully warned. "The World Nobles wouldn't appreciate someone getting in the way of their acquisition of _public employees_."

"Ah no… I wouldn't dare get in their way again. I'm simply asking where they are sold off. I'm sure I can catch many of them on the way there." She told him, as she started walking again.

Kong rushed to join her as he contemplated her words. The Marines hands were tied when it came to slavery. The World Nobles had made it very clear that they were expected to not get in their way and considering that the World Government supported them, there was no way he could legitimately stop them without angering the Gorosei.

What she was suggesting was something that he had tried in the past. He had tried to step up patrols around Sabody Archipelago in the past, but his orders were all countermanded by the Commander in Chief of the World Government. He wasn't directly told to stop but after several days of his orders all being cancelled he knew that _Justice_ didn't extend to slavery in Sabody.

But she wasn't directly under the World Government's control. And she could do what the Marines couldn't. But why would she?

"And why would you care about the liberation of slaves." He carefully questioned.

The smile was back on her lips as they came out of the corridor. A pair of armoured guards saluted them as they passed.

"I'm a Buddhist. As a lay follower I would not engage in businesses of meat, weapons, poisons, intoxicants and living beings." She answered in a way that her speech seemed practice.

"That doesn't answer my question." He accused as the pier came in sight; the double line of Marines still standing stoically on each side of the wide wooden platform.

"No it doesn't." she agreed without hesitation.

They continued the rest of their journey the same way it began: in silence. The Marine officers each gave a salute as they passed by. At the very end was the Marine vessel which would take the new Shichibukai to her own ship.

As they neared the gangplank, he came to a decision. There was nothing for him to lose with this anyway. "Sabody Archipelago, that's where slavers mostly go." He gave out in a low voice.

Byakuren gave a slight nod of thanks before bidding farewell and leaving the Fleet Admiral on the pier of Mariejois.

As they departed, the Buddhist held out her hand and let a ball of green energy form in her hand. The Marines on board tensed and the closest scrambled back in fear when the ball started floating up.

Without a word, the ball sped off in the same direction of the ship. Byakuren gave a reassuring smile to the Marines who calmed down seeing that it wasn't an attack. They went back to their stations and the ship started moving.

The ball was intended for her own group. They had demanded that she give them a message of if she was safe as soon as she could; a green ball for success; a yellow for failure and a red one if she needed saving.

* * *

"We're going to Sabody Archipelago again!" the Buddhist nun declared as soon as she finished flying back onto her ship.

Unfortunately the deck of the ship was near empty of Youkai. The deck was clear of the Youkai that inhabited the ship. Even Murasa, who usually stays near the helm, was missing.

"Neh. Hijiri your… back already?" the rat Youkai warily poked her head out from around the corner. Seeing that it was the master of her master; she let her guard down.

"Yes. Um… where is everyone?" She asked in confusion. It was only the just slipping into the evening with the sunset clear in the horizon; unless it was dinner or a meeting of some sort, there would be others up here; not just Nazrin.

"They're all below deck." Nazrin drawled out as the she moved to suspiciously block the way to the door that lead downstairs.

Her grey hair blocked out her red eyes, and her hands nervously tugged at her brown-black one piece dress. Her dowsing rods were adjusted in a strange angle as she fidgeted.

Byakuren narrowed her eyes in suspicion. The servant of Bishamonten's usual capelet was unusually adjusted in a messy manner and her necklace she wore was strangely missing. And talk about missing…

"Nazrin where's your mouse?" she asked curiously. Nazrin always carried a mouse in a basket with her tail. While the basket was still there the mouse was conspicuously missing. If it wasn't for the fact the mouse was capable of carrying messages for "General Nazrin", she wouldn't have been worried.

"Mo… mouse? Ah… he's um… talking a walk around the boat!" she desperately said.

"They're having a party downstairs aren't they?" she asked without a hitch in her voice.

Nazrin meekly nodded in admission.

Without further ado, Byakuren gently moved Nazrin aside and descended into the boat. The rat Youkai quietly trailing behind her.

It wasn't long before she could hear the noises from the main room. She could hear Shou shouting to others to hurry up and Nue answering back in an equally loud voice.

"How much time do we have left?" she heard Murasa call out.

"I don't know. She's probably still with Nazrin up on deck." answered Ichirin.

"I can hear her coming!" cried out Shou in panic. There was a lot of rustling and more than once she heard something being knocked over before all the commotion faded into tense silence.

She didn't hesitate to open the paper door that lead to the main room. Her shadow was easily seen through the thin layer separating the rooms.

"SURPRISE!"

"Huh! Wha…?"

Nowhere was the crazy party she had expected. For sure there were still bottles of Sake lining the tables. But not a single one was opened and not a single person in the room seemed even slightly intoxicated. Though several cups were spread out across the low table.

And there was food. The food was of a very high quality, used for formal occasions rather than a casual party. It wasn't much, but what there was neatly lined up and of an obvious high quality.

And in front of her were the rest of the boat's occupants. They're faces expectant and slightly worried with her delayed response.

"Eh? What is this?" she asked in pleasant surprise.

Being nudged forward by the others; it was Shou that answered. "Uh… Well we never really celebrated you being unsealed what with all this new dimension stuff."

"Yeah, and so when your green ball came we decided we may as well do it now." finished Murasa, who appeared beside Byakuren and gently led her in.

"Ah… I don't need a pa-" she started before Murasa once stopped her mid-sentence.

"Of course you do! It's not every day that some gets out of a thousand year old seal." The sailor girl cheerfully exclaimed as if it was an everyday occurrence to be sealed in Makai.

"Admittedly getting sucked into a different dimension wasn't part of the plan but whatever! We're still alive so everything's alright!" the mood soured slightly at the mention of their strange circumstances but Murasa's cheerfulness was infectious.

"We even made all the food vegetarian so you can eat to your heart's content." continued Murasa as the ship phantom forced the Buddhist to sit.

As she did so, the others in the room followed suit. Even Kogasa and Nue, who weren't technically part of her 'group', joined in.

Murasa took the lead as she lifted her cup into the air with the others doing the same. Byakuren took a quiet sniff of it to make sure it wasn't alcohol before lifting hers up as well, though less confident than the others.

"To Hijiri's return!" Everyone toasted before downing their small cups. The immortal nun downed her cup with others and found herself pleasantly surprised that it was fruit juice. Since it had to be directly squeezed from a fruit itself; it would have taken a lot of fruit and effort to get this much.

It goes without saying that they slept very late that night or morning really.

* * *

Murasa easily swung her anchor to impact on the side of a slaver. The dirty man was sent flying into a whole pack of others who slammed onto the walls of a cabin together. She ignored their groans of pain as they slid down the wall. None of them were probably dead anyway.

The people of this world were incredibly resilient. She would have to consciously try to kill someone for them to actually die by her attacks. Even if she was to slam her anchor on someone's head as hard as she could; if she wasn't trying to kill them, then the chances are they're not dead.

She ducked under a swing of a polearm and locked the weapon with her bottomless ladle. With minimal effort she flung the man into the same wall as the others.

The last two remaining henchmen had by then lost their will to fight against someone who effortlessly took out half their crew. As they tried to jump overboard, Murasa flung her anchor into one of them, catching him in the back and dive kicked the other face first into the wood of the deck.

With all the immediate threats dealt with she turned to watch Shou battling the captain of the ship. It was clear the heavy set man was struggling against the spear wielding Youkai, as he only barely weaved away from her attacks.

That was yet another thing she noticed in this world. All the slaver gangs they had encountered so far were organised almost identically. There would be a powerful boss at the top, a few other strong individuals around that leader, and the rest were quite frankly; cannon fodder.

All they really had to do was take out those at the top of the hierarchy and the rest would crumble and shatter.

Anyway it was a hopeless cause for the slaver leader. Shou's powers were mostly from her pagoda not her spear which was in fact just for decorative purposes. That didn't mean she didn't know how to use it or that the spear was a cheap fake.

That reason why Shou didn't use her pagoda was obvious. Hijiri didn't want to cause unnecessary deaths and turning the slavers to dust via the pagoda was therefore not a good idea.

Though even if their master didn't want them to kill she had stressed that if they had to pick between themselves and the slavers then their lives took priority. The slaves themselves were also put ahead of the criminals. This was a policy she had no issue with.

"Agh!" It looks like Shou's fight was finally over. Her spear was stabbed right through the man's sword arm, painfully pinning him down.

"Nice one Shou." The ghost phantom praised. The anchor now flung back over her shoulders.

The tiger Youkai gave her a weary smile in appreciation. Close combat was never her forte and her physical strength was below that of an average Youkai.

Her face darkened as he looked towards the hatch that led to the ship's slave pens. This was always the mentally challenging part of these attacks on slavers. It was incredibly hard to not kill the slavers when they saw how they treated their captured slaves. But they were not executioners; that job was left to the Marines who were more than willing to rid the world of scum like these.

The pretty women were generally left alone because they apparently fetched a higher price untouched. The others were not so lucky. There were always some slavers who took it upon themselves to 'discipline' future slaves for the auction house in Sabody. An already broken slave was more expensive than a fresh and hopeful one.

Murasa grimaced as it she remembered that it was her turn to go below deck. She apprehensively lifted the heavy wooden hatch and unleashed the horrible stench that usually reeked in slave pens. The fog like odour of sweat, blood and bodily fluids could almost be seen exiting the hatch.

Ignoring the disgusting smell, Murasa tramped on inside. Her face steeled for what was to come.

Inside she found the same scene that she had for the last three years. Hunched bodies squeezed together in cramped cells. The poor souls were malnourished and far too skinny to be healthy as their blank faces turned towards her.

Tired and bloody men were chained to the wall; their faces blank and devoid of inspirational hope. They were the ones that struggled against the oppression.

And then there were the women who were unfortunate enough to become 'entertainment' for the slavers. Their faces filled with either sorrow or nothing at all as they shrivelled up to cry at their painful circumstance.

Even as a Youkai, she found it hard to not sympathise. She offered no words of encouragement as she broke the locks of the cells, one by one. She had gone through this for the last three years since Hijiri had started their campaign against slavery. She knew that the slaves didn't want to hear her apologies nor her sympathies; they just wanted to get away and forget all this ever happened.

Faces were staring at her in confusion as the gates to their confinement were left open. A few tenderly stuck a hand out before swiftly grasping them back in fear of retribution.

Murasa let out a gentle smile. "C'mon, I'm setting you all free." She softly said to the nervous captives.

One by one the slaves mustered the courage to step outside their cages. Their heads constantly searching her face for any trickery and fearful glances were sent towards the open hatch in fear that one of their tormenters would intervene.

She led them hand in hand back up deck. Their bodies froze upon seeing the slavers but they luckily calmed back down when it became clear the slavers were immobilised. Being stacked onto a pile with Shou sitting on top of it did that to you.

"Is this all of them?" Shou asked in concern as she counted the numbers. Only just over thirty in number, far less than they expected since the raid.

"Yeah, I think they got even more ships to carry them." answered a grim faced Murasa. Somewhere near the Cross mountain, a large town was attacked and all the inhabitants were captured to be sold later. While normally this wouldn't even reach the news, this was an exception due to the message left behind.

"TRY AND STOP US" it was clear to the world that this was directed to Hijiri the 'Saint of Purity'. Since they had more or less been ruining the slave trade in Sabody; this was a clear challenge to our efforts in stopping slave ships from entering Sabody Archipelago, where we couldn't stop them without the annoying World Nobles interfering.

It wasn't helped that they chose to do it just on the eve of the meeting between the Shichibukai and Marines on the recruitment of the so called 'Pirate Empress'. So with her away; the job was left to them. By them; she meant her, Ichirin, Nazrin and Shou.

That wasn't to say they didn't trust Nue and Kogasa. No longer were they the freeloaders of the ship. They were essentially new members in their merry family: Nue being the mischievous and annoying sister and Kogasa the innocent and gullible little sister. No they were fully trusted… they just weren't suited for fighting in life death situations.

Nue wasn't really much of a fighter but rather good at manipulating things from the shadows. All she had to do was make sure that all big ships, that weren't Marines and carried tons of weapons, never got within a few miles of the archipelago. Considering her powers to hide the true nature of things, she could probably make the navigators of the slave ships think a lot of random things.

While Kogasa could fight, no one really wanted her to experience the things on the slave ship. So she was relegated the role keeping lookout on the ship. A simple job that involved very little aside from yelling out whenever there was a ship in sight.

Likewise Ichirin was a must on the ship. Or rather her Nyuudou: Unzan, the pinkish cloud spirit, was needed on the ship. Without the old man of a cloud spirit; there would be no one who could blow wind into the sail of the palanquin ship. Without it; the ship would just be stuck in the same spot in the sky.

Joining Nue in the air was Nazrin. The rat Youkai was their main source of information since it seems even the rats in this world was more than willing to acknowledge "Lord General Nazrin" as their supreme leader. It was with her dowsing rods that she located the slave ships, even when they were disguised. Since all slave ships had those slave collars; Nazrin just needed to focus on that image and her dowsing rods would point them in the right direction.

Of course with Hijiri missing; that left only her and Shou to do the dirty work.

But no matter how many ships they stopped, they couldn't stop them all. Hundreds were taken and according to Marine estimates; there were two dozen of these ships used. And these dozens of ships had very deliberately chosen to come in on the same day and had spread the slaves into even more ships.

So far they had stopped a meagre ten with this being the eleventh. It was a slow process of beating up the slavers, releasing the slaves, putting everyone onto the Palenquin ship, destroying the slave ship and then finally take all of the humans to the Marine base on GR-66.

That was a very slow process.

Shou fired off a bright orange bolt of power into the air; a signal to Kogasa to come pick them up. And unfortunately it was also a signal for all other slavers to get the hell away from it.

It took only half an hour for the palanquin ship to arrive. In that time, Murasa had directed the former captives to the food stuff of the slavers while Shou invited them to give the slavers a kick if they wanted to. Unsurprisingly, many chose to take up her offer.

The occasional slaver that came around was easily dealt with. A swift blow to the head ensured they went back to dreamland.

"Shou! Murasa!" Looking up, they could see Ichirin looking over the railing of the palanquin ship as it descended to hover just above the crests of the waves.

"Ichirin!" answered Murasa as she flew into the air to greet her. Her flight slowed down as she saw Ichirin's grim and worried expression.

"Nue's been hurt, we need Shou's help." At her words Shou snapped up onto the ship in an instant. The only people on board that could heal were Ichirin, Shou and Byakuren. And if Ichirin couldn't heal Nue then it could only mean it was a mortal wound.

"Where is she?" hurriedly asked Shou is concern. As Ichirin led Shou into the ship, Murasa made to follow before remembering all the people still on the slave ship. With a heavy heart she turned to face the slaves who were staring straight back with expectant eyes.

She hesitated before reluctantly reaching over to toss the rope ladders down. With the slaves as weak as they are; she'll have to watch over them as they climb and catch any that fall.

And then she'll have to take all those slavers aboard. She gave a short sigh; she could see Nue later. With Shou and Ichirin healing her together she should be fine. It wasn't like a Youkai could 'die' anyway.

* * *

"How is she?" asked Shou as she and Ichirin rushed through the halls to where Nue was resting.

"She'll live but I need your help with the rest of her body "Ichirin pursed her lips as she replied, remembering the brutal scene of Nue barely reaching the palanquin ship missing limbs.

"Body?" the tiger Youkai asked in darkening worry.

"Yes. Whoever did this literally tore her apart. It was miracle that she was able to fly to the ship" answered Ichirin as she stopped at a specific door and slammed it open.

It was a horrific sight. If Nue was human; then she would have long died of blood loss by now. Luckily she was a Youkai and didn't die so easily.

Despite popular belief Youkai cannot in fact immediately heal after being cut to pieces. For sure a Youkai could survive fatal wounds far better than most humans. It would just take a lot of time for it to naturally heal; time which Youkai had plenty. Unfortunately this didn't mean they couldn't 'die' of mundane means.

Say if someone smash open their heads, or blew them apart with a cannon. Unless the Youkai could make themselves into mist or something before they happened, like those Logia type guys in this world, it was probably likely the Youkai would die.

Nue herself was lying unconscious on a bloody futon. And despite herself Shou let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that Ichirin had exaggerated the details a bit. Her body, while admittedly covered in blood and slashes, wasn't actually in pieces like she had been led to believe.

"I healed her missing parts but I don't have enough for the rest." admitted the Nyuudou User as she gently stepped around to kneel by Nue's motionless form. She motioned to all the bandages covering the small Nue. "I've bandaged everything I couldn't heal myself."

It was then Shou let out a grimace. Nue was literally covered head to toe in bandages. Not a single part of her was left untouched. "Everything…?"

Her companion could only nod grimly in affirmative. "Everything: her throat, her legs, chest, arms, even her face."

Shou grimaced again in acceptance. Murmuring the necessary sutra's and her hands glowed with a gentle light. "I need you to pull off the bandages as I go." She ordered.

Ichirin nodded and together they began their long work.

* * *

Nue slowly and painfully awakened to a dim lit room. Soft snoring could be heard beside her. Struggling, she sluggishly turned her head to find a sleeping Murasa.

"Mu…Murasa?" she croaked out in a small voice.

Murasa sleepily blinked as she heard Nue. Rubbing her eyes she saw Nue staring from her fresh futon. She blinked again to confirm that she was indeed not dreaming.

"NUE! Your alive!" Murasa cheered as she gave her old friend a big hug.

Nue let out a small scream of pain as her body raged with the sudden pressure. Murasa quickly retracted her hug and apologized for it.

Nue painfully let out a small chuckle. "Jeez, I really didn't need that cheesy cliché hug." She commented with brief amusement.

"Sorry, sorry I forgot you're all messed up." Murasa apologized again. Her brief apologetic expression easily overshadowed by her new found cheerfulness at her friend getting back up.

"Oh yeah, Nue do you know who got you?" asked Murasa as she remembered what Ichirin had told her to do. Even if Nue was not a direct fighter, she was still more than capable of taking out the trash that enslaved their own kind. And since she was flying in one of her 'illusions' she should have even been a bird or something to human eyes.

Nue slowly thought over what had happened. It was the usual mislead one of the ships in a circle routine. There was nothing different about it.

"No, it was just the same as usual." She replied after some thought. Murasa was clearly not satisfied with her answer as the captain of the ship continued to pester her for more information.

There was a bigger ship than usual. The crew was about the same size. The usual few weirdoes that could be found at sea were also on board. The ship had a unique smiley Jolly Rogers, one that in her opinion was rather funny difference to the usual skull and crossbones.

"Well… it had a smiley instead of the usual." she admitted truthfully. But that was just an emblem. It probably just belonged to yet another pirate who wanted to make some quick cash from slavery. That was all there was to it, right?

* * *

**Thanks for reading.**


	3. Few for the Many

**Kogasa can surprise Reimu really easily. All she has to do is donate a few coins to the Hakurei Shrine. That will probably be Reimu's income for the month.**

**Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda and Touhou Project belongs to ZUN (A man who likes his beer)**

* * *

Byakuren tried to not fall asleep like her fellow Shichibukai during the long speech that the Government Official was making. With the coming of the third Shichibukai; the World Government had decided to televise the event.

While she was impressed with the small snail that enabled such a miraculous feat, she wasn't enthusiastic about the on-going ceremony itself. Being advised of what was already going to happen, the whole ceremony was a bore.

It was nothing like when she became a Shichibukai; her one taking only just longer than an hour but this one planned to last six. Though she supposed that since the Shichibukai scheme was somewhat working, the Gorosei had decided to show it to the whole world.

Beside her was the only other member of the Shichibukai: "Hawk-Eyes" Dracule Mihawk; a truly impressive man who has mastered the ability of narrating himself aloud without looking ridiculous doing it. She didn't think the man even noticed he spoke aloud when he narrates.

The Black Sword Yoru was resting in its sheath beside its owner who had his wide-brimmed hat tipped down to hide his closed eyes as he slept through the ceremony; his soft snores indistinguishable from simple light breathing. Never did she regret not bringing her conical straw hat like today otherwise she could emulate him and get away with it.

Byakuren was inclined to follow suit. The Den Den Mushi was soley focused on the "Pirate Empress" and the dreary official reading out a long list of crimes that was being pardoned one by one. Of the three famous Marines chosen to stand witness, only Mister Buddha was actually paying attention.

Beside him, the much acclaimed "Hero of the Marines" Vice Admiral Garp, was fast asleep yet somehow still looked serious about the whole affair, probably a skill that he had long honed.

On the other side of Mister Buddha was an extremely tall man, towering over most others in the room, dressed in a yellow striped suit with the customary Marine coat draped over his shoulders. This man didn't even bother pretending to be interested and was openly reading a small book on the table.

In fact Boa Hancock herself looked ready to sleep herself despite being the centre of attention. This was probably why the Gorosei didn't deign to attend; it wasn't dignified to fall asleep at such an important event in full view of the world.

Her eyes twitched as the urge to close them came again. Sleeping during events, no matter how uninterested she was; was something she shouldn't do. But when you had been sitting in the same chair for the three hours of preparation, the two hours the ceremony had taken so far and with another approximate four still coming, with nothing of interest in between; sleep was becoming more and more tempting.

Still she couldn't do that. At the very beginning of all of this, she had promised herself that she would show the world she wasn't just another pirate. Interrupting the slave trade was doing its work, but this was being shown worldwide. If the Den Den Mushi swung her way and showed her sleeping, it wouldn't help her goal at all.

Her long scale plan to return to the world they belonged to; one where the Land of the Rising Sun existed.

She didn't know what magic was used to banish them from their world. And she doubted that she had the skill to perform it by herself regardless.

But there if there was one supreme power that could bring them back, then it was that of a God. And she just happened to be friends with one of his disciples and even one of the higher ranking Youkai of his court.

Unfortunately the problem that existed three years ago still persisted. Gods were sustained by their faith of their followers. Without that a God would fade away.

She was certain that Bishamonten still existed; Shou's Pagoda wouldn't work otherwise. But neither Shou nor Nazrin could contact the God with their usual methods that according to them should have worked anywhere.

The best explanation that she had for this was that there wasn't enough faith for him in this world to manifest. In fact there didn't seem to be any faith whatsoever in this world aside from the occasional rumour of some cultists on some isolated island.

Therefore her plan, dubbed "Operation Come back Home" by herself was simple.

The first step was to make sure that the world isn't naturally suspicious of them because they were apparently 'pirates'. It was awfully convenient that this "Shichibukai" title was created only days after their arrival.

Secondly, they would garner good faith from the world. Stopping the criminals of the world was a very satisfying bonus to this.

Third: they would travel the world and spread the messages of Buddhism. This would hopefully gather the required faith to manifest Bishamonten.

And last; Shou or Nazrin would contact their god and see if he can't bring them all back home. With his Godly powers, which far surpassed what any mortal could muster; it should be child's play for him.

Short of them all dying painful deaths, it was win-win plan. The world would be a better place with Buddhism, they would be able to make the world a slightly better place by capturing pirates, Bishamonten would have a new world of followers and hopefully by the end of it all she and her followers would be back in the Gensokyo that Kogasa talked about. It sounded like such a peaceful place…

"And we officially name you a Royal Warlord of the Sea!" the herald shouted for dramatic effect. The small gathered crowd let loose a polite round of applause.

Snapped out of her thoughts; she joined in. Has she really been thinking for a few hours straight? It didn't seem that long in her thoughts.

With that the Den Den Mushi closed its eyes; and everyone stopped. Boa Hancock didn't look the least impressed with what she had just gone through and was busy scolding the herald about how this was a waste of her time.

It was at this moment that Mister Buddha whacked Vice Admiral Garp over the head. She didn't need to look to know what was going to happen next. Sengoku was going to scold Garp, and the Vice Admiral was going to laugh it off again.

"I'm leaving." It appeared that Mihawk had also somehow break off his sleep. With his simple declaration, he turned his back to the rest of the room and headed straight towards the closest door.

No one else in the room seemed bothered by his abrupt move. Admiral Kizaru was tucking his book away into his jacket and was leaving his chair, seemingly to also leave.

"I too am leaving." She said, taking the opportunity to leave. There was still the matter of the slavers challenge to deal with. She could only hope that the others were able to handle it.

But as she made her way to the door; a flash of light sped past her. Kizaru reformed in front of her, blocking her path.

"Can I help you Kizaru?" she politely asked. The Admiral gave a lazy smile as he rummaged through his jacket. From it he withdrew a bounty paper with an image of a tanned man wearing a pair of curved sunglasses and sporting a cruel smile. Donquixote Doflamingo – 200,000,000

"Do you know who this is? " Kizaru asked, drawing out the last syllable in his unusual speaking pattern.

Byakuren raked her memory but came with blanks. She had never seen nor heard of such a man. Though she already had an inkling of why a Marine Admiral was bringing this up.

"Sengoku wanted to warn you that you should stop your operations at Sabody." said Kizaru, his voice in a less cheerful tone. He glanced to Sengoku who was now grappling with Garp over something.

"…and why should we do that?" she asked carefully. As far as she knew, the majority of Marines approved of her actions in respect to slavery. The ones in Sabody didn't count since everyone knew they were being bribed.

That was why she didn't just straight out attack the Auction House. To the ones with the authority in Sabody: they weren't slaves but rather 'public employees'. Even if she freed everyone there, they wouldn't be able to live normal lives with the slave brand on them.

The Admiral pointed at the picture again. "Donflamingo used to be a World Noble. He's now in charge of the Auction House in Sabody. Even though he's not a World Noble anymore… you still can't touch him. The Higher ups will… take offence to that."

Yes, the Gorosei had made it very clear they weren't appreciating what she was doing. By annoying the World Nobles, she had most likely made life a lot harder for them. Yet they couldn't dismiss her without just cause. If the world at large knew that she was dismissed for attacking slavery, they would lose their pristine image.

That was why they had taken to more subtle methods. Like the constant media that tried to follow them for 'news'. She would have liked the recognition because it helped her goals if the trade-off wasn't alerting the whole world, including pirates and slavers, to where she was.

"I don't understand the problem." she insisted. She never targeted the Auction House anyway. She didn't see why this would be an issue. A loud smash could be heard but neither of them paid attention to it.

"OoOoo… so you don't know." Said Kizaru in what might have been surprise. The man was near impossible to read with that lazy tone and almost never changing expression. "The Higher Ups are considering making him a Shichibukai. He'll be one within the month."

"Then shouldn't he stop his activities?" asked Byakuren. Kizaru only shook his head.

"Doubtful." Byakuren turned her head to see that it was Sengoku who had answered her question. The new Fleet Admiral of the Marines was coolly striding towards her. On the other hand Garp had already left the room; the man sized hole in the wall was testament to this.

"Yo Fleet Admiral. I gave your message, can I go now?" questioned Kizaru. With Sengoku's acknowledgement, the Admiral casually strolled out with his hands in his pockets.

"Even if their allies now, once a pirate, always a pirate." Sengoku said. "Your group technically weren't pirates." He added seeing that Byakuren was going to retort about her unjust former criminal status.

"The Auction House is now employing slavers everywhere. Since they will all soon be employees of a Shichibukai; you can't attack them without risking your status." he reasoned.

Byakuren pouted. Was losing her Shichibukai status worth freeing slaves? …Probably. It wouldn't help in the long run of things though.

She had to think of another method. Several of her old ideas went through her mind. She had dismissed them before due to their danger but with circumstances changed…

She could have Ichirin and Unzan cause a freak tornado or something at the Auction House. But with unsold slaves held there, many would die during the event.

Likewise having Murasa sink slaver ships wasn't a good idea. For sure it would stop slavers; but the slaves will probably have drowned by the time they went to rescue them.

"It might be best for you to shift your efforts elsewhere. Tequila Wolf has quite the reputation." suggested Sengoku.

"I'm not stopping." Byakuren whispered. If she backed down now, then all the things they had accomplished so far would be for naught.

There was something she wanted to try first… it would mean she would lose all chance of ever entering Nirvana is this life but it would probably save many from a life from enslavement.

"Thank you for the information, but I am not stopping." She declared as she gave a small bow of thanks to the Fleet Admiral.

Sengoku suddenly took a grip of her shoulder. He quickly handed her a file, before releasing his grip. "This should help."

Byakuren was startled to find that it was a file on Donquixote Doflamingo. Inside was sheets of paper detailing things like his Devil Fruit, affiliations, etc. She gave another bow of thanks before heading on her way.

* * *

Sengoku watched the 'Saint of Purity' leave. The 'Buddha' then let out a sigh as he marched out of the room.

It was thanks to the Marines who heard her comment about him resembling a 'Buddha' all those years ago; people finally had a name for his Devil Fruit. Now he was stuck with a name that he barely understood.

He didn't know what she was planning but it was certain to piss off the World Nobles. And when they were pissed off they get the Gorosei annoyed. And when the Gorosei gets annoyed; they dump work onto their Commander-in-Chief. And from him, piles of paperwork will land on his own desk back at Marineford.

Still if this was the price to pay for curbing in those maniacs, then it was one he was more than ready to bear. If the Marines weren't so reliant on the money of the World Nobles; he would have long done something about them himself.

But of course political realities made it nigh impossible for Marines to even dare crossing the World Government and by extension the World Nobles. The Marines were completely reliant on World Government for their funding. Without it they couldn't pay wages, munition costs, etc.

Just by helping Byakuren Hijiri was cutting a fine line. The World Government had made it quite clear in private, that they did not like her; something to do with showing them up.

But he was a Marine because he believed in the power of justice. He held no delusions about the nature of the World Government; he had served long enough to have understood more of the less public actions of the World Government.

His loyalty to the World Government only extended to the point that they are necessary for world stability. He had heard of this new so called 'Revolutionary Army' and he disdained them.

They wanted to destroy the World Government and all it stood for. Yet they were simply idealistic fools who couldn't see things in the long term. While the World Government was without doubt not the paragon it makes itself out to be, it was better than total anarchy.

If the World Government fell, who would stop the pirate threat? Without the World Government; there would be no Marines since they relied on the World Government funding. No individual kingdom had the power to stop the stronger pirates in the world and small islands towns were particularly at risk.

Even the Reverie was essentially a World Government event. There would be no convening royalty to discuss matters without the World Government.

No, if the World Government then the aftermath would be complete chaos. When he first joined the Marines, he wanted to bring peace to the world. Now he wanted to change the world.

Destroying the World Government would be stupid. All the authority and trust that had been built up over the centuries would be lost and whatever government the Revolutionaries wanted to install would take centuries for the distrust to disappear.

It was much better to use the existing system. The effects of Byakuren Hijiri around slavery were little, but it was a first for someone to subtly protest against the World Government without actually directly attacking them.

He hoped to see a changed government before his death. Considering the age of the Gorosei, if he pulled enough strings; it might just happen. The Gorosei couldn't live forever.

* * *

"A smiley emblem?" Byakuren questioned with a grimace on her face.

Nue nodded from the bedside. "Yeah, is that a problem?" she asked in concern.

Byakuren shook her head in grim anticipation. "No, it just makes what I'm going to do a bit easier." she admitted.

"And watcha going to do?" Nue asked in curiosity. She had been in bed for a while now and had no idea what the others were doing.

"I am going to the Human Auction House." The nun answered. Nue nearly choked as she heard this. For the last three years, Hijiri had outright refused to even come close to the place. "I really should have done this years ago; it would have saved a lot of innocent people."

"What? Are you finally going to tear the place down?" asked an interested Nue. Byakuren smiled sadly and softly shook her head. "No, Unzan will be doing it."

"Hijiri we're ready." Shou interrupted, as the tiger Youkai slid open the door. Byakuren got up from her position and waved Nue a goodbye before departing.

The streets were packed with people who were staring at her in awe. All at a safe distance of course. One does not simply just get in the way of a World Noble and a Shichibukai on a collision course.

When said Shichibukai was famous for standing up to World Nobles and even nearly killing one for her bounty, even pirates were staying shy of getting in the way. An Admiral was only a call away.

"Saint Leila. I advise we take a detour." The World Noble's aid desperately advised, only a step away from outright pleading. He knew for certain that if there was a violent confrontation; he would probably be the second casualty after the World Noble.

Because he knew the Saint Leila thought she could actually somehow take on the Saint of Purity and win. He also knew that in reality; that was essentially suicide for the Saint and her entourage.

The aide wasn't even certain the Marines or even the Gorosei would support them. They had made it plenty clear to all servants of the World Noble to keep their charges away from the Shichibukai. An international incident was hardly something they needed and if Saint Leila attacked first…

"Nonsense; I will not step aside for a lowly commoner who dares fancy herself a saint." exclaimed Saint Leila in indignation.

Of course she wouldn't step aside. Her father was the one that was attacked by Byakuren Hijiri. Their family pride had been hurt by the attack and then just driven to the ground when the World Government announced their first Shichibukai.

"I will finally put down the bitch that hurt my dearest father." With that the Saint loaded her gun. The Aide didn't bother to tell her that a gun was almost certain to not work; she probably wasn't even going to hit her with it too.

It was good thing that Leila had not brought any slaves along. There didn't need to be more things to add to the tensions that were to come.

The street cleared as the two parties met each other. On one side were Saint Leila and her entourage; her guards and servants sweating tears as they waited for what might be their last moments on this planet.

On the other was the one that people considered a true Saint. Beside her was the cosplaying tiger girl and the sailor girl with the anchor. Their faces were neutral compared to the seething that Leila had.

Breaths were held as Byakuren Hijiri opened her mouth to speak.

"Good day." And with that the Saint of Purity was led her party around the World Noble's entourage. The aide let out a sigh of relief, as she passed by him. It looks like today wasn-

"Stop right there you insolent dog!" shouted Saint Leila; she clumsily swivelled around to face the Buddhist with her gun drawn.

Oh well, the sun was up, the birds were singing; it was a good day to die…

"Can I help you?" the other Saint asked politely. Beside her the tiger girl was lifting up some strange glass ball while the sailor girl was levelling her anchor. If what he had heard of them was true; just one of them would be enough to kill them all.

"Don't think I've forgotten what you've done to our family!" the World Noble waved her gun around in a threatening manner.

Hijiri wasn't the least threatened. Considering she was from someone who beat an Admiral; it was rather justified. Though to be fair, hardly anyone outside the Marines knew that. "My apologies, but do I know you?"

She had been keeping her interactions with the World Nobles to a minimum and she certainly didn't know this one. Then again she never really paid much attention to them.

Saint Leila recoiled as if she had been struck. "Don't know me… HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW ME?!" she screamed hysterically.

Byakuren waited patiently while the 'Saint' was screaming about her father and pride and such. When it became apparent that she was not stopping anytime soon, the nun gave a sigh. "My apologies but I really must be going. Good day to you."

"Don't you dare ignore me!" Leila screeched in return. She quickly cocked her gun and fired a single shot off in the general direction of her hated 'opponent'. But the tiger Youkai was ready.

Shou Toramaru reacted quickly. Her Pagoda flashed as a beam of light sped faster than a human eye could see to turn both the bullet and gun to ash. It was actually too fast even for her Youkai eyes to catch, but she would have been an idiot for not planning to disarm the 'Saint' beforehand.

This time Saint Leila screamed in terror as her gun turned to ash in her hands. As she flung it left and right to get the residue off the Buddhists took the clearing to leave unmolested.

"That was annoying." noted Murasa nonchalantly as she tried to block out the banshee like screams behind her. Neither of her companions wanted to comment.

"Still are you sure you want to do this Hijiri?" Murasa asked in concern. "I'm not really Buddhist so I could do it for you?"

Byakuren shook her head stubbornly. "No, I was the one who chose to attack slavery so I'll be the one to see it through." she said resolutely.

"What about Nirvana and all?" asked Murasa. If she was going ahead with this plan then Hijiri was essentially losing all hopes of reaching enlightenment.

"I've lost all chances of that when I started using demonic magic. At least this time; I'm doing it for a good cause." assured Byakuren. Her mind was already set, herself for hundreds today and potentially thousands for the years it would take for the Auction House to be rebuilt; a bargain in her mind.

"Do we have enough money?" she asked again to check. Shou gave a curt nod to this. "Yes, with all the bounties we brought in with slavers; it adds up to quite a fortune. We'll probably lose most it by the end of this."

"Money isn't an issue when compared to lives. Let us get this over with." Byakuren sighed as she spotted the infamous Human Auctioning House.

The Auction House was just up ahead. Already she could see the smiley emblem proudly displayed near the door. The group of customers outside were uneasily parted to let her through.

The Auction House guards were more than willing to let her in. Willing meaning they didn't want to be the one that tried to stop her.

"Ah! Miss Hijiri, what can we do for you?" the sleazy manager nervously said to the Saint of Purity. Down below the announcer had gone quiet along with the rest of the room as all eyes trained on her.

"I am here to do business." Byakuren awkwardly said. She could hear gasps from across the room and she fought back a blush that threatened to come out. Maybe she should have let Murasa do this.

"Wha? Ah… of course please take a seat anywhere you like." stuttered out the manager as he got over his surprise. It didn't take a genius to tell that she was up to something. But then that was the point.

"Oh!" Byakuren uttered as she remembered something. Once again the manager felt fear jolt up his spine, but he stood his ground. What Doflamingo would do to him if he screwed up was far worse than anything she could do.

"Is there a Donquixote Doflamingo here?" she asked in curiosity. Seeing the manager frantically shake his head; she nodded and left the scared man alone.

As the three Youkai took a seat near the centre left, all the surrounding customers uneasily edged away to leave them with plenty of room. Quite a lot of them were outright trying to make their way out of the building as fast as they could.

And by whatever poor chance there was, the same World Noble she met the three years ago was also present. Unlike his daughter; he was none the wiser as he hurried to escape the one who still tormented him in his nightmares.

By the end of it; there were only a fifth of the original occupants of the grand room; half of those being pirates that were probably waiting for her reaction. If she had known her very presence was this effective; then she really would have done this earlier.

"Now, moving right along! This is our 14th entry; a group of four beautiful ladies fresh from the Cross Mountains…" The announcer down below bellowed out before he remembered who else was in the room.

Up far above him; Byakuren was giving off a beautiful smile. The dark and creepy one when she only gave when she was angry but wouldn't show it; the one that generally promises some sort of punishment.

"Ahahaha… well… we'll start the bidding off at 2,500,000. Anyone?" the announcer nervously said into the microphone. Of the few actual customers left; not a single one was willing to left a hand.

"2,000,000? 2,000,000 anybody?" the announcer anxiously said to the silent room,

In contrast to the mood of the customers; the slave girls for sale were fast gaining hope. They had heard from the guards that if the 'Saint of Purity' couldn't stop them from reaching the Auction House; then there was no longer hope for them.

That all changed when said Saint was now in the Auction House. This hope turned to confusion when Byakuren awkwardly lifted her hand into the air.

"ahhh…. Sold?" the announcer uncertainly declared. The Saint of Purity buying slaves? That was unexpected.

"Shou could you deal with them." Byakuren whispered over to the Tiger Youkai. Shou nodded and got off her chair, to descend onto the stage.

"Don't worry. We'll set you free later." The disciple of Bishamonten reassured to the slave girls. A assistant then led the Shou and the girls off the stage as the next group came up.

* * *

By the end of the day; Byakuren had spent approximately 945,000,000 on slaves. That was surprisingly cheaper than she had thought.

The average pirate bounty around Sabody Archipelago was around 100,000,000 to 200,000,000. Considering she had been bringing in all the unlucky pirates who crossed her path alive, she received the full amount without the 30% reduction when they were dead.

Right now, surrounded by her 'purchases' she didn't know whether she should be angry about how cheaply people value lives or disgusted with herself when she thought it was cheap.

There were 478 slaves gathered together in the open field below the palanquin ship; going by the four family patterns; that meant about 120 families to put back together plus all the other slaves that happened to be in the Auction House.

They were really understaffed. Kogasa was more busy scaring people than helping and Nue was still in bed.

Nazrin was busy briefing the details of the second part of the plan to Ichirin and confirming whether it was still possible. The power that "General Nazrin" had among rats was amazing. Who would ever suspect there to be a whole spy network comprised of rats?

And Ichirin and Unzan was clearly needed for the second part. Besides if all went well; they would have their share of work with all the slaves still in the warehouses in Grove 01.

* * *

Ichirin flew far above in the night sky. Instead of her usual outfit; she was garbed with a small robe and black muffler that covered her face. It was unlikely that anyone would see her; but it was also unlikely that someone could have seen Nue.

Considering the task; she couldn't leave anything to chance. She even persuaded Unzan to change his colour to match the other clouds. As long as she was inside the Nyuudou; she was completely camouflaged.

And now came the moment of truth. Ichirin shook her head as the thought passed through. When did she ever say anything like that? …Nue's influence was scary.

Down below she could see the lights of the Auction House. As expected there was a lot of security.

Usually; new slaves would be brought in at night to fill the gap. But Hijiri's sudden appearance had definitely spooked them.

They had probably waited the whole day for Hijiri's move. They were expecting some sort of trick that would happen. When that didn't happen; they started to get paranoid. Obviously they expected some night attack of some kind. They were not wrong.

It was a ruthless plan. One that she didn't think Hijiri would ever think of; but being exposed to all the pain that slavery bought kind changed people. In Hijiri's case; she was probably more like her old self, idealistic but pragmatic enough to see how terrible the world can be. She witnessed it first hand after all.

But at the very least; she was glad that it was her doing this and not her master. Even if she was the one who came up with the plan; Ichirin doubted that Hijiri would be able to go through with it. She had seen her kill rampaging Youkai and destructive bandits before but never something on this scale.

Her? She didn't care about the lives of slavers too much. After all they had done; it was better for her to save them from causing more pain rather than let them continue.

Intercepting slaver ships for three years straight only put pressure on the slave trade here rather than stop it. If they destroyed the main slave trade hold and killed most of the slavers themselves…

The Auction House was filled with the management guards and all the pirates and slavers they could find on short notice; which was to say: most of them. A natural disaster call Unzan, the destructive hopping tornado was about to befall them.

Despite the silly name she didn't smile. That was exactly what Unzan was going to do. Many were going to die this night.

* * *

**Thanks for reading.**


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